Curated category
Chemical elements
- NitrogenScottish physician Daniel Rutherford isolated a new gas in 1772 during experiments at the University of Edinburgh. He called this substance noxious air…
- OxygenOxygen is the third most abundant chemical element in the universe, trailing only hydrogen and helium. About 0.9% of the Sun's mass consists of oxygen.
- EuropiumIn the year 1896, French chemist Eugène-Anatole Demarçay examined spectral lines from samarium-gadolinium concentrates. He noticed faint lines that did not…
- ChromiumOn the 26th of July 1761, Johann Gottlob Lehmann found an orange-red mineral in the Beryozovskoye mines in the Ural Mountains.
- NickelA silvery-white metal with a slight golden tinge, nickel stands as one of only four elements that remain ferromagnetic at room temperature.
- DysprosiumIn 1886, French chemist Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran worked in Paris to separate dysprosium oxide from holmium oxide.
- MolybdenumThe name molybdenum comes from the Ancient Greek word meaning lead. For centuries, miners confused molybdenite with graphite and galena.
- ZincZinc carries the symbol Zn and holds atomic number 30 on the periodic table. It sits as the first element in group 12, also known as IIB.
- BerkeliumIn December 1949, a team of scientists at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in California achieved a breakthrough that would add a new chapter to the…
- ZirconiumIn 1789, Martin Klaproth analyzed a jargoon stone from the island of Ceylon and identified a new element within it. He named this substance Zirkonerde…
- CadmiumFriedrich Stromeyer isolated a new element in 1817 while examining zinc carbonate samples sold to pharmacies in Germany.
- CeriumIn 1803, Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger stood in a laboratory in Bastnäs, Sweden. They had just isolated a new substance from the heavy gangue…
- PotassiumIn 1807, Humphry Davy isolated a new metal from potash using a newly invented voltaic pile. He derived the element by electrolysis of molten caustic potash.
- TerbiumSwedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander detected terbium as an impurity in yttrium oxide during 1843. He separated yttria into three fractions named yttria…
- TitaniumIn 1791, a clergyman named William Gregor examined black sand by a stream in Cornwall, Great Britain. He noticed the sand was attracted to a magnet and…
- YtterbiumIn 1878, Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac examined samples of gadolinite while working in Geneva. He found a new component within the earth…
- AluminiumThe stable isotope 27Al comprises virtually all naturally occurring aluminium. This single isotope makes the element mononuclidic for standard atomic weight…
- LeadLead-208 holds 126 neutrons, a magic number that grants its nucleus exceptional stability. This isotope represents the heaviest stable nucleus known to…
- IndiumIn 1863, German chemists Ferdinand Reich and Hieronymus Theodor Richter examined ores from mines near Freiberg in Saxony.
- LanthanumIn 1839, the Swedish chemist Carl Gustaf Mosander examined a sample of cerium nitrate. He roasted it in air and treated the resulting oxide with dilute…
- NiobiumIn 1801, English chemist Charles Hatchett examined a mineral sample sent from Connecticut to England. He identified a new element within the ore and named it…
- PlatinumThe element platinum carries the symbol Pt and holds atomic number 78 in the periodic table. It exists as six naturally occurring isotopes that define its…
- PraseodymiumIn 1885, the Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach stood before a mixture of salts that had puzzled scientists for decades.
- CaliforniumOn the 9th of February 1950, a team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory achieved a feat that had never been done before.
- UraniumA uranium atom contains 92 protons and 92 electrons. This element forms a silvery-grey metal within the actinide series of the periodic table.
- HeliumThe observable universe contains helium at about 24% of its total elemental mass. This figure represents more than 12 times the combined mass of all heavier…
- ManganeseManganese carries the atomic number 25 and exists as a hard, brittle, silvery metal. Its most common form is the stable isotope known as 55Mn.
- Mercury (element)A heavy, silvery-white metal flows freely at room temperature. Mercury remains liquid until the temperature drops to minus 38.83 degrees Celsius.
- HydrogenAbout 75% of all normal matter in the universe consists of hydrogen. This element formed roughly 370,000 years after the Big Bang when the expanding cosmos…
- BerylliumIn 1798, a paper read before the Institut de France announced that chemist Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin had found a new earth by dissolving aluminum hydroxide…
- ArgonIn 1894, Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay stood in a laboratory at University College London. They held a test tube filled with air that had been…
- ArsenicA heavy, brittle block of grey arsenic sits on a laboratory bench. Its density measures 5.73 grams per cubic centimeter.
- CobaltIn 1735, Swedish chemist Georg Brandt stood before a furnace in Riddarhyttan and proved that a dark powder was not bismuth.
- AmericiumIn late autumn 1944, a team at the University of California, Berkeley, used a massive 60-inch cyclotron to create a new element. Glenn T. Seaborg, Leon O.
- BariumAlchemists in the early Middle Ages found smooth pebble-like stones of mineral baryte near Bologna, Italy. These stones were called Bologna stones because…
- ErbiumCarl Gustaf Mosander stood in a laboratory in 1843 holding a sample of gadolinite from Ytterby, Sweden. He believed the mineral contained only one metal…
- NeodymiumIn 1885, the Austrian chemist Carl Auer von Welsbach stood in a laboratory in Vienna and separated a complex mixture of rare-earth elements.
- RutheniumIn 1844, Karl Ernst Claus worked inside a laboratory at Kazan State University to isolate six grams of a new metal from crude platinum residues.
- ScandiumIn 1879, Swedish chemist Lars Fredrik Nilson examined minerals from Scandinavia under a spectroscope. He saw faint lines of light that did not belong to any…
- SeleniumIn 1817, Jöns Jacob Berzelius and Johan Gottlieb Gahn stood before a red solid precipitate in the lead chambers of their chemistry plant near Gripsholm…
- VanadiumIn 1801, a Spanish-Mexican mineralogist named Andrés Manuel del Río extracted compounds from a sample of Mexican brown lead ore.
- YttriumIn 1787, a part-time chemist named Carl Axel Arrhenius found a heavy black rock in an old quarry near the Swedish village of Ytterby.
- EinsteiniumThe sky over Enewetak Atoll turned gray with fallout on the 1st of November 1952. A massive hydrogen bomb named Ivy Mike detonated above the Pacific Ocean…
- SilverA single electron in the 5s subshell defines silver's unique behavior. This configuration, written as [Kr]4d105s1, places it among group 11 elements…
- CalciumCalcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It stands as an alkaline earth metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when…
- MagnesiumAging stars forge magnesium by adding three helium nuclei to a carbon nucleus. When these massive stars explode as supernovas, they eject the element into…
- PalladiumIn July 1802, English chemist William Hyde Wollaston noted the discovery of a new noble metal in his lab book. He named it palladium in August of that same…
- RhodiumIn 1803, William Hyde Wollaston isolated a new element from crude platinum ore. He dissolved the material in aqua regia and neutralized the acid with sodium…